Northern Tier Energy planning upgrades at Minnesota refinery

Northern Tier Energy is planning upgrades at its St. Paul Park, Minn., refinery that would increase crude run flexibility and allow for more ultralow sulfur diesel crude production, the company said today. Via Reuters, CEO Dave Lamp said Northern Tier had ordered two new desalting units to allow the St. Paul Park refinery to process more Bakken and Canadian heavy crude and less Canadian synthetic crude. The St. Paul Park refinery’s capacity will not change. The upgrades, along with other projects being evaluated, will cost less than $100 million, Lamp said.

The 89,500-barrels-per-day St. Paul Park refinery is capable of processing a mix of light, heavy, sweet and sour crudes. Northern Tier is partially owned by Western Refining.